Compatibility Mode In Word

When you first open Microsoft Word 2010, it operates in Compatibility Mode and you can see the text [Compatibility Mode] in the application’s title, next to the name of the document. Compatibility mode allows you to work on documents created in versions of Word prior to 2010. When working in compatibility mode, some new functions in Word 2010 may be disabled. If you open a document created in Word 2007, for example, Word 2010 will detect this and switch to compatibility mode.

As soon as you save a new document as a Word 2010 document, the [Compatibility Mode] text is removed from the title bar and the new function become available to you. Some of these new functions are:

Opening Older Word Documents In Compatibility Mode

If you open a document created in a previous version of Word, you will open it in compatibility mode. However, you can easily convert it to Word 2010 and thereby enable the new functions. To do this, click the Office Button. You will immediately see at the top a message indicating that you are in compatibility mode. Also displayed is a Convert button.

On clicking Convert, a dialogue box is displayed explaining that the document will be converted to the newer file format. The document will actually be replaced by the newer version, meaning that there will be only one copy of it, in Word 2010 format.

Clicking OK will complete the conversion and save the file with the .docx file extension. The newer features of Word 2010 are now available and [Compatibility Mode] no longer appears in the title bar.